Goings and Comings

One friend feels stuck, another feels a twinge at everyone's wonderful vacation plans and I know how they both feel, even though the photos I put up for my last post make it look as if I am going on a fabulous adventure; they don't give any whiff of this being a bittersweet enterprise, the last time we will all be in St. Lucia together like this. When my mom leaves St. Lucia this time, it is unlikely that she will ever come back there. She has become so frail. She will live in Jamaica with my brother now. We all are thinking this St. Lucia trip is the last hurrah, but none of us says it, because who knows? We could be wrong about that. This is my mother we're speaking of, after all.

So those photos I put up were very carefully selected to remind myself that as stuck as I feel, I too can have a grand adventure, even if I am not on a speedboat on the Italian Riviera, or riding a camel and posing with handsome men in a market in Morocco, or dining in sidewalk cafes in Barcelona, or playing a pick up game of soccer on a field in Zimbabwe, or climbing waterfalls in an Argentine national park, all photos I am treated to each time I have logged on to Facebook this month. My friends and acquaintances are having adventures all over the world, and I am in my little maze, to work and home, to work and home, and darn it, I have an adventure coming up too!

So there's that.

And this. We picked up my sweet girl from camp today, and there were tears and fierce hugs as the goodbyes were said, she has made such good friends there. The first session kids had gone home earlier that morning, and only the counselors in their blue staff shirts were left, along with a handful of kids who stay on between sessions, the eight-weekers. I love how the little kids were right there in the mix, throwing their arms around counselors hugging, one even reaching up at one point to wipe a tear on my daughter's face. Our girl only worked the first session this year, doing a five week stint instead of the usual nine, so she could give herself some time in the city before leaving for college. She slept in the backseat of our car most of the way home, waking up occasionally to slap her forehead about some new thing she remembered that she had forgotten, including her favorite sleeping bag that she uses as a blanket at home and her paycheck (they will mail it).

She missed us bad, I guess because her brother wasn't at camp this year. And she missed the city, I guess because she was missing all the gatherings of friends in this last summer before college and of course there is also the boy. She hugged us tight when she saw us, she literally ran into my arms, her cheek wet against mine, and that pretty much cured the missing us, because as soon as she got home she was making plans to meet up with some of The Six for dinner, and there is also a house party somewhere, which she hadn't planned to attend, but at dinner her friends convinced her to go, even though she wasn't dressed for a party, wearing jean shorts and a hoodie and flip flops. She is still in camp mode dress wise. One of her friends will be coming home with her and sleeping over because they have soooo much to catch up on. Ah, I love this. Here are a couple of snaps I took of the camp goodbye.

My girl is home!